Justice and/or Reconciliation: the key to successful transition from post-conflict peacekeeping to peace and nation-building

Source: (2004) Paper presented at the Institute of Policy Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, 19 July. Downloaded 3 September 2004.

In this paper, Sukehiro Hasegawa examines the subject of transition from post-conflict peacekeeping to peace and nation-building in relation to issues of justice and reconciliation. His basic point is the need for a duality of justice and reconciliation in post-conflict peacekeeping. That is, in post-conflict situations the international community must not limit its response to the establishment of traditional justice mechanisms of courts focused on punishment and retribution. There must be attention to and mechanisms for reparation, for a full accounting of what happened in the period of conflict, and for national reconciliation in the aftermath of conflict. To explore these matters, Hasegawa discusses justice, reconciliation, and truth. He locates all of this in the specific context of post-conflict peacekeeping and nation-building in Timor-Leste.